This might be the greatest film ever made. Okay you already knew that if you looked at the title. But this is more greatest film ever made than possibly any other greatest film ever made. Make sense? I agree it makes complete sense anyway onto the review.
Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest directors of all time, possibly the greatest and 2001: A Space Odyssey is his magnum opus. It has 4 parts and I want to tackle them separately.
There will be spoilers so beware I guess.
Part One
This movie starts out great. You see the Monolith and here "Also Sprach Zarathustra". You might be thinking "You don't see the monolith at the beginning you see a black screen". Here is the thing: the black screen is the monolith. The Monolith is black. Okay it might not be the monolith but I think it is. Why else would there be a black screen at the beginning. After that screen you see Humanoid type creatures. You see them living their life. Chilling in a cave, fighting other humanoids, normal prehistoric human stuff. They mysteriously see the monolith and find it very interesting. It then mysteriously aligns with one of the planets.. Then one of the apes discovers that it can use a bone as a weapon and naturally they dominate the other tribe. In the scene where they discover bones as a weapon you see the humanoid hitting the bone and break it into smaller pieces. While he is doing it you see it imagining killing another animal. Then you get one of the best cuts in movie history where the now human throws a bone in the air and cuts to a ship. Somehow this part didn't get this an oscar for best makeup. Probably because people didn't realize that it was people dressing up as apes and not actual apes. Since when were you punished for being too good at your craft.
Part Two
After one of the greatest cuts in movie history you see the spaceships with "The Blue Danube" playing in the background. You see the main character of this part Haywood Floyd in a flight to space. He then gets on the ship and you see some of the most mundane dialogue in movie history. Some people use this as a knock on the film saying it makes it boring. To be fair this movie is in many ways boring. But to me that enhances the film. The dialogue is mundane intentionally. It shows how boring human life will become when there is too much technology. He then goes to the Moon because there are mysterious things happening. On the moon they discover that it is the monolith causing what is happening. They try to take a group picture near it but the monolith stops them. It also tells them to go to jupiter. You see it aligning with one of the planets. This part is also great. The best moment in it is when one of the people working on the ship walks in no gravity. The impressive thing about that moment is that since there was no CGI at the time they had to put the person in a rotating room. But it is done so seamlessly you don't notice.
Part Three
Part three is called the jupiter mission. In part three you get in my opinion one of the greatest characters in movie history. Dave! Just Kidding. It is actually Hal-9000 the A.I. So many iconic lines. At the beginning you see life on the ship with Dave and Frank. You see Dave jogging with artificial gravity. You find out three other scientists are on the ship hibernating. This turns out to be a horrible decision. Pretty early in you can see that Hal seems to be sentient. In a pretty funny moment in an interview with Dave, Frank and Hal you see the interviewer saying "I sense pride in his voice" it is funny because Hal is a robot and always talks in the same voice. Dave goes space walking to fix an antenna Hal can't find what is wrong. This causes Hal to go kind of crazy because he isn't supposed to make any mistakes. Dave and Frank agree to shut off Hal and make sure Hal doesn't hear them. Unfortunately Hal can read their lips and goes rogue. When Frank goes space walking Hal decides to kill him by using the robot to turn off his oxygen. Hal then kills all of the people in hibernation making Dave the only one alive. When Dave goes on his mission he says "Open the Pod Bay doors Hal" then Hal says one of the greatest and most iconic lines in movie history "I'm sorry Dave I am afraid I can't do that". Around then was when I realized that the way Hal talked made it sound like kind of a psychopath. Dave then shuts off Hal. This part is probably the best part of the movie and that is impressive. It is the original Robot Revolt storyline. Probably still the best.
Part 4
So this is the part that apparently bothers some people. You see Dave seeing the Monolith and starts investigating it. He happens to align with the Monolith while it is aligning with all of the planets. You then see him go through a color show of travel that is probably interdimensional.. Which eventually leads him to a very Kubrick room. He sees an older version of himself. You then see that older version of himself walk around the place and sees an even older version of himself. That even older version sees a dying version of Dave in a bed looking at the monolith. You then go into the Monolith's point of view and Dave becomes a Star Baby. You then see Dave looking at the earth and then probably breaks the fourth wall as if it is aware of the camera and probably also the audience.. People endlessly theorize what happened. Some people think that this part is extremely confusing and find it annoying because there are no answers. All I can say is that it is intentionally confusing. For me it seems like Dave is evolving into the next form of life. And just like the previous evolution The Monolith caused it to happen. That is just my theory. Unlike what some people think in my opinion no matter what the explanation is it is a great part.
Many people think this film is too confusing. I didn't find it too confusing. It is complicated but not confusing. With a film like this you can't just sit there and watch it as if it is star wars. You can't expect it to be the most entertaining thing ever. You are supposed to think. And if you don't like thinking you might not like this. You should still probably watch it because you might discover that you do actually like thinking. If you are anything like me and you do like thinking, watch this film. You will probably like it.
Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest directors of all time, possibly the greatest and 2001: A Space Odyssey is his magnum opus. It has 4 parts and I want to tackle them separately.
There will be spoilers so beware I guess.
Part One
This movie starts out great. You see the Monolith and here "Also Sprach Zarathustra". You might be thinking "You don't see the monolith at the beginning you see a black screen". Here is the thing: the black screen is the monolith. The Monolith is black. Okay it might not be the monolith but I think it is. Why else would there be a black screen at the beginning. After that screen you see Humanoid type creatures. You see them living their life. Chilling in a cave, fighting other humanoids, normal prehistoric human stuff. They mysteriously see the monolith and find it very interesting. It then mysteriously aligns with one of the planets.. Then one of the apes discovers that it can use a bone as a weapon and naturally they dominate the other tribe. In the scene where they discover bones as a weapon you see the humanoid hitting the bone and break it into smaller pieces. While he is doing it you see it imagining killing another animal. Then you get one of the best cuts in movie history where the now human throws a bone in the air and cuts to a ship. Somehow this part didn't get this an oscar for best makeup. Probably because people didn't realize that it was people dressing up as apes and not actual apes. Since when were you punished for being too good at your craft.
Part Two
After one of the greatest cuts in movie history you see the spaceships with "The Blue Danube" playing in the background. You see the main character of this part Haywood Floyd in a flight to space. He then gets on the ship and you see some of the most mundane dialogue in movie history. Some people use this as a knock on the film saying it makes it boring. To be fair this movie is in many ways boring. But to me that enhances the film. The dialogue is mundane intentionally. It shows how boring human life will become when there is too much technology. He then goes to the Moon because there are mysterious things happening. On the moon they discover that it is the monolith causing what is happening. They try to take a group picture near it but the monolith stops them. It also tells them to go to jupiter. You see it aligning with one of the planets. This part is also great. The best moment in it is when one of the people working on the ship walks in no gravity. The impressive thing about that moment is that since there was no CGI at the time they had to put the person in a rotating room. But it is done so seamlessly you don't notice.
Part Three
Part three is called the jupiter mission. In part three you get in my opinion one of the greatest characters in movie history. Dave! Just Kidding. It is actually Hal-9000 the A.I. So many iconic lines. At the beginning you see life on the ship with Dave and Frank. You see Dave jogging with artificial gravity. You find out three other scientists are on the ship hibernating. This turns out to be a horrible decision. Pretty early in you can see that Hal seems to be sentient. In a pretty funny moment in an interview with Dave, Frank and Hal you see the interviewer saying "I sense pride in his voice" it is funny because Hal is a robot and always talks in the same voice. Dave goes space walking to fix an antenna Hal can't find what is wrong. This causes Hal to go kind of crazy because he isn't supposed to make any mistakes. Dave and Frank agree to shut off Hal and make sure Hal doesn't hear them. Unfortunately Hal can read their lips and goes rogue. When Frank goes space walking Hal decides to kill him by using the robot to turn off his oxygen. Hal then kills all of the people in hibernation making Dave the only one alive. When Dave goes on his mission he says "Open the Pod Bay doors Hal" then Hal says one of the greatest and most iconic lines in movie history "I'm sorry Dave I am afraid I can't do that". Around then was when I realized that the way Hal talked made it sound like kind of a psychopath. Dave then shuts off Hal. This part is probably the best part of the movie and that is impressive. It is the original Robot Revolt storyline. Probably still the best.
Part 4
So this is the part that apparently bothers some people. You see Dave seeing the Monolith and starts investigating it. He happens to align with the Monolith while it is aligning with all of the planets. You then see him go through a color show of travel that is probably interdimensional.. Which eventually leads him to a very Kubrick room. He sees an older version of himself. You then see that older version of himself walk around the place and sees an even older version of himself. That even older version sees a dying version of Dave in a bed looking at the monolith. You then go into the Monolith's point of view and Dave becomes a Star Baby. You then see Dave looking at the earth and then probably breaks the fourth wall as if it is aware of the camera and probably also the audience.. People endlessly theorize what happened. Some people think that this part is extremely confusing and find it annoying because there are no answers. All I can say is that it is intentionally confusing. For me it seems like Dave is evolving into the next form of life. And just like the previous evolution The Monolith caused it to happen. That is just my theory. Unlike what some people think in my opinion no matter what the explanation is it is a great part.
Many people think this film is too confusing. I didn't find it too confusing. It is complicated but not confusing. With a film like this you can't just sit there and watch it as if it is star wars. You can't expect it to be the most entertaining thing ever. You are supposed to think. And if you don't like thinking you might not like this. You should still probably watch it because you might discover that you do actually like thinking. If you are anything like me and you do like thinking, watch this film. You will probably like it.